My wife and I ate here last night, and we both really enjoyed ourselves. My wife liked it even better than the Paris menu. Kudos to Achatz and his staff.

It was very fitting that Dana and I would have our anniversary meal at Next seeing as we've known each other since we were kids. We both enjoyed our meal immensely whether it be the food itself, or the memories it invoked.

PB&J a gift from all of us at Next



Bit into this and jelly shot down my throat. Spent the next minute and a half choking. My low point of the meal, owing nothing to the kitchen.

Chicken Soup no noodles, a noodle of chicken





As others have commented on, broth was too salty, and noodle was too soft. Dana still had fun reminiscing though.


Fish -N- Chips drawn by a child


Mac & Cheese a merry-go-round of garnishes




Seasons have changed, so Autumn Scene has now become:

Winter Wonderland a walk through a Michigan forest




Hamburger McDonald's, Burger King, White Castle...no?



Like jesteinf, I may have had my deepest connection to this dish. Memories of my dad taking us through McDonald's drive-thru after a long day's work for a happy meal came rushing back to me.

Lunch Box












Clockwise:
apple-brandy leather, truffled oreo, nutella snack pack, homemade funyun, wagyu jerky


mixed berry drink





Loved most of this, but that nutella snack pack tasted pretty awful. Weird consistency.

'Foie'sting and Donuts lick it off the beater!




Sweet Potato Pie campfire on your table












Hot Cocoa


After the meal we were invited back to the kitchen to meet and speak with Chef Beran






Honestly, I was ready to give up on Next after my visit to Thailand in its beginning weeks that we went. Though I agree Next lacks consistency with its model, I am extremely happy I was able to experience Childhood when I did.

If anyone is still looking for tickets, they have tables on 1/25 - 1/29 available right now on the site. They didn't mention it on Facebook, so they aren't flying.

Heading to Next tonight, a friend got day of tickets!

When is the final day for Next-Childhood menu? Is it this Sunday, January 29?

Shasson wrote:When is the final day for Next-Childhood menu? Is it this Sunday, January 29?

Yep, that's what they told us....

Enjoyed the meal but too many sweet courses and the regular wine pairing were all kind of pedestrian
I really liked the alcohol free drinks the fall course was my favorite so many different tastes. Great service from the staff, they really have it down at this point.

mhill95149 wrote:
too many sweet courses...
I really liked the alcohol free drinks

Sounds like childhood to me

I barely made it for the Childhood menu, lucking out with the last unannounced table release. And though I went in skeptical, I came away really loving the evening. I even found nostalgia hiding in the back of my mind that I didn't even realize was there.

To me, little has been said of the pure genius in opening up with the PB&J but this to me epitomizes just what makes this team so successful. Whereas the PB&J might seem to belong better to the dessert category, at Next it was the small but perfect introduction to what lied ahead in the evening and was so subtle in terms of effect . . . almost like walking into Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory.

I first tried to politely unwrap the PB&J box, but eventually abandoned this idea and ripped apart the paper (probably my maturity level circa 14 years old - trying at first to be an adult and please). Immediately after eating the sphere, I then lifted the box, looked around to see who might be watching, leaned my head back and began pouring the crumble into my mouth (repeat several times). I had totally forgotten how old I was and a huge grin overtook my face. I had again become a child, whether it had occurred to me at the moment or not.

The chicken soup had a different effect upon me. The first aroma that hit me was that of a bouillon cube, but not in a bad way. It reminded me of every morning as a teenager, driving to Glenbrook North High School and smelling the instant soup/chicken bouillon smell emanating from the Wyler's factory. Almost every day near GBN, this aroma was there and unmistakable. I wonder if Nick smelled this and pictured himself back in the day, and wondered if this is at all where he thought he'd be today. Nostalgia!

As for the soup itself, it might have leaned toward the salty side, but there was something nostalgic about this for me and I accepted it all. And perhaps this menu has evolved because I thought the noodle was terrific and definitely tasted like chicken. If I have one complaint about the chicken soup, the serving was so large and might have been one culprit in my inability to finish the entire meal. But I really enjoyed every drop of the soup.

I loved the plating of the fish and chips - how could you not. What I hadn't read is just how beautifully cooked the fish was. I also found that it all came together, albeit with a little difficulty because the vinegar was reduced to such a thick syrup. But I think this course played a few tricks with diners' minds. This was a small piece of fish (and that's where the focus should have lied), but perhaps the large plate (necessary due to artwork) left people wanting more. Personally, I loved it although I'm not sure I realized it at the time or appreciated enough the beautifully cooked fish.

Mac & Cheese was a hit on many levels - presentation, texture of the pasta and the pure cheese flavor. While a couple of the accompaniments did nothing for me, I have to say that the Mangalica Ham pinwheel just blew me out of the water. Could I possibly prefer this to the pata negra? I'll be in Spain in just over a month and you can bet I'll be doing a lot of taste testing to find out.

The winter wonderland course might have been a little lost on me. I didn't really love the flavors, although the presentation was sensational. One concern I had with this course is that the aroma was quite strong, which ended up being a problem during our mac & cheese course. The table next to us was already enjoying the winter wonderland and the burning juniper aroma hit me during our mac & cheese course. Given how close some of the tables are to one another, Next might want to consider aromas that are less strong or don't float so far.

I might not have been hit with nostalgia as hard as others with the hamburger course, but I thought it was terrific. Though I did find myself singing the "two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun" song. I loved the dish, but what amazed me most was how they were able to get the short rib to taste exactly like the most perfectly seasoned and cooked burger patty. But where were the french fries? Well, given how full I was getting, probably a good thing that they were not included.

The lunch box was just pure fun. Note: Next will soon be auctioning off the lunch boxes (EBay?) with proceeds to go to charity. Kudos to them! To the extent I had veered away from my childhood thoughts as the meal progressed, this brought me right back. I started to recall the lunch boxes I had had as a child - Scooby Doo and the Mystery Machine was one! Anyway, I loved the apple brandy leather (mesmerized by how they did it so right), the truffled oreo was so clever and tasty too, and I thought the flavors and texture of the nutella snack pack were so good too. I have to say that the wagyu jerky didn't cut it for me though - tough to chew and I just didn't love the flavor, but that could be because I was so damn full by this time. Also because I was too full, I had only a few small sips of the fruit "juice."

Yet I managed the lick the beaters on the foie'sting and doughnuts. It was all tasty, and reminded me of how my siblings and I would drive my mom nuts while she was baking. My mom would try to make sure most of the batter made it into the baking pan; my siblings and I would make sure the metal on the beaters was unrecognizable and that the beaters had as much batter on them as possible (sorry mom - well, not really). I'm sure your families have similar stories.

And I loved the idea of the sweet potato pie, and the fired sweet potato, marshmallow and ice cream were all so delicious. Unfortunately, I was stuffed more than the fattest Thanksgiving turkey at this point so I left much of this dish at the table. Hot cocoa followed, and although it was delicious, I only had a few sips . . . still too full. Terrific cognac too, but alas too full.

When I told our servers how full I was, they mentioned that when they first previewed the Childhood menu, the portions were about 30% larger. In any event, this might have been the first time in my life that I was given food this good and been unable to finish it all. Service was as outstanding as I've come to expect from these guys - friendly, lighthearted, humorous and all the time professional. They just don't miss a beat.

I almost didn't make it to Next Childhood, and I'm so glad that I did. Not only was the food excellent, but it awoke in me memories from my childhood that I hadn't realized were somewhat obscured.

Loved reading your account BR ... and reliving through it our experience too. What a lovely, fun and warm meal that was - and how neat of the Next team to tap all those memories.